dailytimes.com.pk: Police ripped off Muslim girl’s hijab

WASHINGTON: The trial of Rehana Khan, a Muslim girl of Pakistani-descent from Illinois who had her headscarf or hijab ripped off after she and several others were arrested for civil disobedience while protesting at a rally for immigrant rights last year, has finally been scheduled for April 25. A group of five young people – white, Latino, Muslim – are facing up to four years in jail for a protest against the racist vigilante group the Minutemen. Two Illinois state attorneys have reportedly refused to discuss a plea without jail time. Their case goes to trial on April 25, according to the New Jersey-based website DesPardes, quoting the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Rehana, while being led to a police squad car, reportedly informed an officer that the way in which she was being handled was causing extreme pain – actions from which she obtained bruises and scars – and requested that the officer ease her grip. The officer responded by stating, “No, that’s what you get,” and then remarked, “Take that off” and violently pulled off her hijab. At the police station, Rehana was made to take off her hijab again and was searched by a female and male officer without her hijab on. After the search, the female officer tried to give the hijab back to her but the male officer stopped her, saying that there was nobody at the station to look at her, while adding that the practice of wearing the hijab was a “fashion statement”. The detainee was then kept in lock up without being permitted to wear her hijab. CAIR-Chicago will be meeting representatives of the village of Arlington Heights to discuss this instance of police misconduct. khalid hasan